Laptop & tablet ponderings
Oct. 21st, 2010 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
innocent_lexI've had my current laptop for almost a year. That may not sound like very long, but I have 3 other laptops stacked in the cupboard in the study that I replaced in under 2 years, either because they went wrong, or were too slow, or too hot, or... well, a lot of 'or's that made me frustrated with them and led to a replacement. This current one, though, is doing pretty well, and so far I can't think of anything about it that annoys me. I like it. It's got game. It does everything I ask of it without complaint, and it's even pretty while doing it. And it matches my car (I didn't actually realise that until it arrived, but it amuses me).
If I were following past trends, some time in the next 6 months I'd start thinking about what comes next. What should I be looking out for to replace this. What kinds of processors are blazing through previous speed records, what kind of memory is coming with high end specs, how big would the hard drive need to be at a minimum, how many HDMI ports, USB, card slots, etc, etc. But I'm not thinking that. In fact, I'm thinking this machine is lovely and I want to keep it for a long time (well, a long time in laptop years...).
What it also prompted me to think about was the latest rash of tablets. I realise Apple, in all their delightful delusions, think they invented the tablet. Bless them. But obviously they've been around a long time, much longer than netbooks and much, much longer than the ipad. I don't see the point of an ipad - it has no place in my gadget box. I see the point of a tablet (I've had one for 3 years at home, 18 months at work) but again it has its strengths and there's no point in getting one if you're only going to use it as a standard laptop. Also? Inking. I *really* don't see the point of a tablet that isn't optimised for inking. Yikes! So I'm watching the releases of new tablets with interest, waiting for one that meets my requirements. It seems I'm always waiting for technology to catch up with what I want / need to fill my niche. It took about 15 years for someone to create a commercial HDD recorder after I decided I wanted one when I was 12. I hate to think how long it'll take for someone to create a holodeck that I can feed fic into. Obviously this has made me somewhat patient, but it's also made me read much of the tech news with an air of detachment: "oh, someone finally got around to creating that, did they? Just not very well, apparently."
So, I'm waiting for a tablet to meet my specs (I really don't ask for much), and in the meantime I'll stick with my old faithful UMPC and my current faithful laptop.
If I were following past trends, some time in the next 6 months I'd start thinking about what comes next. What should I be looking out for to replace this. What kinds of processors are blazing through previous speed records, what kind of memory is coming with high end specs, how big would the hard drive need to be at a minimum, how many HDMI ports, USB, card slots, etc, etc. But I'm not thinking that. In fact, I'm thinking this machine is lovely and I want to keep it for a long time (well, a long time in laptop years...).
What it also prompted me to think about was the latest rash of tablets. I realise Apple, in all their delightful delusions, think they invented the tablet. Bless them. But obviously they've been around a long time, much longer than netbooks and much, much longer than the ipad. I don't see the point of an ipad - it has no place in my gadget box. I see the point of a tablet (I've had one for 3 years at home, 18 months at work) but again it has its strengths and there's no point in getting one if you're only going to use it as a standard laptop. Also? Inking. I *really* don't see the point of a tablet that isn't optimised for inking. Yikes! So I'm watching the releases of new tablets with interest, waiting for one that meets my requirements. It seems I'm always waiting for technology to catch up with what I want / need to fill my niche. It took about 15 years for someone to create a commercial HDD recorder after I decided I wanted one when I was 12. I hate to think how long it'll take for someone to create a holodeck that I can feed fic into. Obviously this has made me somewhat patient, but it's also made me read much of the tech news with an air of detachment: "oh, someone finally got around to creating that, did they? Just not very well, apparently."
So, I'm waiting for a tablet to meet my specs (I really don't ask for much), and in the meantime I'll stick with my old faithful UMPC and my current faithful laptop.
